PURSUING PURITY 2 by Ifunanya and Henry

PURSUING PURITY 2

By Ifunanya Ikechukwu & Henry Chizoba (KTF PH) …cont’d from yesterday

     Purity of Character

Also Christians should always be pure in their attitude, slow to anger, having the spirit of self-control, temperance and godly character. We should maintain a godly character especially when we are out there with the so-called unbelievers. These days if you act anyhow and call yourself a Christian an unbeliever is ready to slap sanity into your head!
Yes! That’s how much people know of true children of God. We must begin now to pray for the fruits of the Holy Spirit which is the true characteristic of a Christian. Recall it was because the disciples acted like Jesus Christ that made the people of that time to call them Christians, (Acts 11:19-26). Are you a Christian or you do you imagine yourself to be one?

     Sexual Purity

When it comes to sex and sexual relationship, there is a kind of hype in the mood of many youths; everyone suddenly begins to pay attention. It is one adventure that many of us youths crave to explore.

Since we are just beginning the year with purity, talking about purity without talking about sexual purity is like bathing without soap. It is one thing that God Himself takes very serious. In fact when it comes to sexual engagements we are told to flee! Sexual purity means abstaining from premarital and extramarital sex. Premarital sex is sex before marriage while Extramarital sex is sex outside marriage. Sexual purity is the right thing to do as a Christian; it keeps the temple of God which is our body, sacred. There is always a punishment for sexual impurity such as shame, degradation and diseases. Sexual impurity kills emotionally, mentally and physically (sexually transmitted diseases). Sex is a means by which children are conceived and marital intimacy is expressed. It was ordained this way by God, so having sex with someone that you are not married to is a grave sin against yourself and God. The punishment is inevitable, 1Cor. 6:18.

           We are God’s chosen instruments and He did not create our bodies to be used for sexual immorality. It (sex) was designed solely for married people, so we must honour God with our bodies by keeping ourselves from lusts and ungodly thoughts and desires. As a result of lack of self-control when it comes to sex, many youths have tarnished their bright and glorious future and exchanged it for an inferior one having lost the superior future that they were destined with to the person with whom they have engaged in this shameful act.

               Let us expound a little on some of the adverse effects of this act.

Ø  PRE-MARITAL SEX

As always our foundation is the Bible scriptures. We shall therefore take our cue from the story of Amnon and Tamar (2^nd Sam. 13). Amnon was the half brother of Tamar sister of Absalom son of David king of Israel. Amnon developed what we now know as feelings for his sister to the point that he became sick. That is to show you the power of sexual immorality. So sick was he that he became lean and his cousin and friend, Jonadab proffered a solution to him: ‘pretend to be sick and when your father comes to see you tell him that you want Tamar to be the one to attend to you.’ What a crafty advice! What kind of friends do you have? Who and who do you mingle with? Well, the plan worked out perfectly and he forced his way in and guess what happened next in verse 15, he hated her exceedingly that the love he had for her was nothing to be compared to the hatred afterwards! In the end of the scenario, he cast off the woman like a piece of trash! When the father, David heard it, he was very wroth but that was all that was written about the father on the issue. But for the brother Absalom, he was mute over the issue and didn’t confront his half-brother for two whole years but what he wanted to do to him was in his heart. At the set time he masterminded the death of Amnon.

We see from this story how ‘just a feeling’ led to the death of a man, loss of a woman’s pride and the committal of murder. Many youths are in this category, we call it feeling. When the hunger for sex is built from lust nothing can quench it except the sin is committed. Premarital sex ruined the life of Tamar and terminated the life of Amnon. I bet you that if he had known the effect of his actions he wouldn’t have done what he did, but he had a rush of blood that is present in many youths today, and a terrible friend to go with it. Friends matter a lot in our lives and if we don’t keep the right ones we will as well end up like Amnon. The same Jonadab that advised him on his adventure was yet the same one that announced his death. How cruel can evil friendship be? (1^st Cor. 15:33). Why destroy your future for a pleasure of five minutes? Another sad story of sexual impurity with regards to premarital sex found in the bible is that of Dinah (Gen 34).

In our modern world premarital sex is normal. I once asked a girl are you still a virgin and her answer astonished me, ‘that wan na story’. I was caught off balance. Some posts even have it that ‘virginity is not dignity it is lack of opportunity’. That is a falsehood from the pit of hell! From our above story, Tamar cried and poured ashes on her head when she was defiled. But today, girls make boasts of how many guys they were able to do in one week! No fear or respect for their bodies! The same thing goes for boys/guys, who brag and show off to their friends how they had this girl for the weekend and that girl for the night. They forget so easily how these exchange of body fluids has put them at various risks. Risks like has been mentioned above but most dangerous of them is the exchange that occurs spiritually. Some ladies go into sex and become addicted to it. This is as a result of their first sex; there has been a spiritual exchange. Some begin to have spiritual husband and spiritual wife. For those who don’t know what these are, let me give you a clue, when you sleep and you see yourself having sex in the dream, my dear you have attracted one. I have had personal experiences of delay when I was into masturbation but thank God for Jesus who has the power to save and if He can save me, He too can save you. Flee sexual impurity it kills faster than any other sin. God says your body is His temple 1^st Cor. 6:19. The adverse effect of this impurity is great that this publication will not be enough. Keep reading editions of Faith Journal as the topic can come up any time.

Ø  EXTRA-MARITAL SEX

It is a shame that married people too are guilty of sexual impurity. The link of this extra-marital sex is gotten from pre-marital sex. I mean the urge to have sex outside marriage was gotten from the curse they shared from the act they had engaged in the past with someone. The link is rather funny. Read this; (the letters are males while the numbers are females), X sleeps with 1, Y sleeps with 2, B sleeps with 3, A sleeps with 4, B sleeps with 2 and 1, 4 & 3 sleep with Y, 1 sleeps with B and the spiral goes on to many others outside this circle. What is the guarantee that all of them are free of ancestral curses and each of them have not shared each other’s curses; hipping up more curses as they continue and when they finally get married the effect of the curses they have shared with others will continue with them in the marriage. That is why some homes are shattered and some men can never have one woman. 

Assume now that before 1 married she had sex with X who had raped someone before he slept with 1 and his victim had cursed him, she has attracted the curse on X. She goes on to sleep with B who is a chronic womanizer who has slept with 2 who also has a history of delay in child bearing and finally she settles down in marriage with C who attracted rising and falling from someone he slept with in the past before marriage. Now, how many problems has she gotten to herself? Four terrible problems! A curse, the spirit of womanizing, delay in child bearing and the spirit of rising and falling! Why? Read: 1^st 6:15. This is just to mention but a few because these days people sleep around like dogs and goats. The problems of today are as a result of the mistakes of yesterday! Flee sexual impurity!

Further scriptural readings:

v 1Thes. 4:3-5, it is God’s will that we abstain from fornication

v 2Tim 2:19, sin separates us from God

v 1Cor. 7:1-2, lust is built on selfishness and not on love. Lust is an intense appetite to satisfy the flesh.

v If you don’t deal with lust, it will destroy you. James 1:13-15. Temptation is a pressure applied to your flesh or your thinking.

v Eliminate sexual perversion habits;

v Do not allow your emotions to rule your life

v Create and develop a character centered on purity let the Word guide you, Psalms 119:9, 11 & 15

Apostle Paul urges the singles to abstain from sex and remain single but if the singles can’t restrain themselves from sexual desires then they should get married, 1Cor. 7:1

Fornication has so many consequences that this write-up will not be able to contain all.

o   It causes challenges in relating with one another if one who has always engaged in such sex before marriage eventually gets married and it kills the emotional development of such individuals.

o   It can lead to unwanted pregnancy and various sexually transmitted diseases and;

o   It destroys the relationship one has with God.

Fornication maybe accepted in the society that we now find ourselves but we must always remember that we are not of them that draw to perdition. Let’s maintain the standard of Christ via His words!